The Swamp
by Writingthisish
Summary: An experimental one shot. A night when Joel, Ellie, Tommy and Maria are chased by hunters. One of them is dead. Who gets blamed for it, and is it true?


**Just a random One shot. Experimental. Hope you enjoy, leave a review/follow if you do. Thanks for reading!**

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One turn here. Another turn there. A dip into oblivion and he felt invisible snakes lifting him back up, pulling his head back above the surface. Black spots blinked in and out of existence around the corners.

Thunder echoed, shook the forest floor, sent a flash of light across the trees and rocks. Nothing was going to change.

Everything would rot at some point or the other. Turn black and drip with malice.

Just like her.

'She didn't see it,' she whimpered. The switchblade slid out from her shaking fingers, fell with a sickening splash in the swamp. Blood caked her face, splattered across her jaw and nose. When she sniffed, she snorted the vile crimson fluid.

He sank to his knees in front of the body, his eyes roaming the familiar face, the soaked clothes. A trembling hand reached out to touch, but Ellie pushed it away, gentle as a falling leaf.

The green eyes appeared in front of him, boring into his being. He felt himself cowering, retreating into a non existent cocoon as thunder ripped the skies.

'It'll only make it worse,' she uttered. His hand sank, fist burying in the mud below him, wet, sticky. 'I couldn't save her.'

A distant voice called. Once. Twice.

'Tommy!'

Nothing reached him. He simply rocked back and forth once, looking at her limp body, her empty eyes. Ellie stood up, brushed his shoulder lightly as she walked past and met Joel with an embrace.

Everything disappeared one by one, first the rocks, then the trees, and a colossal set of teeth swallowed the night sky whole. Thunder dwindled and the swamp swirled into itself, like a tornado consumed by its own energy. The ground under him sank deep into nothingness and shattered.

Only thing that remained was the body, and the voices.

Visions came back to him, sights from a year ago, when the red haired, green-eyed girl had come in, and voices had raged, of hers and Maria's, plaguing the house and shaking the walls. He remembered the girl's eyes, wide, frenzied, twitching.

 _'You cannot kill him Ellie. He is a part of this town.'_

 _'He's a fucking cannibal. I saw him, I did. He ate people.'_

 _'Stop it!'_

He shook his head once as the voices screamed inside.

' _If you continue this, I'm gonna have to kick you out of the town.'_

 _'You just try.'_

He saw the body again, gently floating, rain pooling in the jacket hollows, her golden hair caked with dirt and blood. It still trickled from her throat, a constant red fall.

Right from the deep slit above her collar bones.

'Tommy,' a voice called, but he never responded. He recognised it, a deep gritty one, familiar from his childhood.

'Tommy, come on,'

'Leave me,' Tommy mumbled.

'The hunters will come back,' Joel's voice hissed in his ear. A cold grip closed around his limp wrist.

'Let's get the body and leave,' he said. 'Let's go. Or we all die.'

'Hunters didn't . .' Tommy's voice faltered. His body gave in as Joel pulled him onto his feet.

'What?'

'It was her,' he uttered. Ground shattered again.

'The fuck are you sayin'?' Joel demanded, teeth grinding. 'Pull yourself together. We gotta leave.'

'I'll get the body,' the black voice echoed. Tommy saw her running in the front, her red hair wet, sticking to her neck. Her fingers reached out to touch Maria, gather her limbs, pull her out of the swamp.

'Oh fuck!' she exclaimed suddenly, and dropped Maria back into the swamp. One eye fell into the water, while the other stared at him, wide and dead. Brown water entered her lips.

Ellie pulled out her gun and shot at nothingness. She stepped back, cursing, and Joel screamed and shot at blackness with her.

'Run!' he yelled, and reached for Tommy, pulling him as he began to sprint. Tommy's legs were paralysed, and his eyes didn't register the people following them, the guns and knives, the warnings. He saw Joel's face, his eyes wide and frantic, his lips pulled apart as he screamed something at him.

Tommy couldn't hear it. He felt heavily the presence of the corpse behind him, like it was still staring at him, pulling him back in towards her, so inviting. _It could all just end here_ , he thought _. I could just be with Maria, and then I'd never have to run again. I'd be so happy._

'Tommy, for fuck's sake!' Joel screamed. He pulled his limp body with him as he ran. Tommy's body betrayed him, his feet started moving. His muscles were contracting and pulling, forcing him forward, pushing him to run with Joel and Ellie as he heard the malicious voices behind him.

 _Why am I running?_

He saw Ellie, her blood soaked hands and the red back of her neck.

 _I know you did it. I know you killed her_.

'Tommy, keep up!' she yelled at him. 'They're catching on!'

His legs moved faster, his chest burned and his heart pounded against it. He caught up with her, and saw his hands before him, like they were being pulled up by a puppeteer, invisible strings forcing him. His fingers bared like teeth towards Ellie, and just when she turned back, they clasped at her neck and pushed her to the ground.

She thrashed under him, hands flailing, and Joel screamed and tried to pull him away. But he was the stronger one now. The puppeteer wasn't going to stop.

He heard gunshots behind him, heard Joel cursing, fighting off the hunters.

He set his eyes on the green orbs, that were now thinning, slowly slipping behind curtains as they pleaded him for mercy.

'Why?' he hissed at her. 'She loved you!'

Weak fingers brushed against his strong wrists, and suddenly there was solitude. The voices behind him disappeared. Heavy breathing, footsteps.

Then a hard blow against his jaw, forcing his grip away, sending him into the ground. His cheek crashed into the mud.

'The fuck is wrong with you!'

He felt fists closing against his jacket, pulling him up onto his feet, and then fleetingly pushing him against a tree trunk. Murderous hazel eyes, sharp bared teeth.

'Joel, stop!' Ellie coughed, pulling at his jeans.

'She killed her,' Tommy's voice shook. 'She did. I know she did. She fucking slit her throat with that fucking blade, I know she did!'

'Tommy!' Joel pushed him against the tree again. His eyes softened a bit, his lips closed as pain took over his features. 'Stop goin' after her! The hunters got to her, and Ellie was tryin' to save her!'

'Like hell she was!' Tommy spat, and his lips twisted in agony. 'She been against my Maria since the start. I seen it, she fought and fought! She screamed!'

Joel's grip grew light, as Tommy sunk into himself, his head hung, sobs cracking through his throat.

'I seen it!'

Joel let go, stepped back, eyes on his brother. He gulped, his eyes wary, his breath shallow. He felt Ellie get to her feet behind him.

He was now nothing, just a ball of agony. Curled up against the tree, appendages sinking into one another like they could consume his center. His lips moved, only to wail and blabber incoherently.

'Joel,'

He turned to look at her, red marks on her neck, lips dripping with coagulated blood.

'The body,' she mumbled.

He looked at Maria, barely visible in the swamp. He nodded once.

'Let's get it,' he uttered, his voice barely audible, shaken to its core. His eyes lingered on Tommy, as he inhaled sharply, a stinging in his chest. He shook his head once.

When he walked, Ellie's eyes moved to Tommy, and she let out a sigh.

'I told you,' she spoke under her breath, the voice reaching only the cold air around her. 'She didn't see it.'


End file.
